Or rather should I say British Followers! As we have just been joined by our Scottish friend, Simon Masterton.
Sadly, Simon was no help at all in my quest for weight loss. Yes, yes, he did force me to go on hikes with him through the beautiful North Cascades (more on that later), but he also forced me to make a vat load of pumpkin pie and sugary pumpkin sweets. And once those things are made, they kind of have to be eaten... don't they? Aren't they the same as love??
The North Cascades are a beautiful range of Mountains about 3 hours drive away from Seattle. Sounds fairly accessible, but actually the weather and terrain mean they can only be reached from Spring to Autumn - they only managed to get a road to go through the range in 1970.
We travelled to a place fairly close to the start of the North Cascades Highway (voted one of the most scenic drives in the US) called Diablo Lake. There is an overlook where people who have gorged on pumpkin treats can get the views without leaving their cars (ah America!) but Simon was rather more keen to hike through the "two foot wide right next to the edge of a cliff!" (as Kira termed them) trails.
These were immediately made more interesting by the BEWARE COUGARS sign posted at the start of the trail (actual wild cats rather than predatory older women... raooooww!). Apparently, to ward them off you have to make yourself larger than life by putting your arms above your head. Knowing Kira and I you will be aware that putting our arms above our heads would barely qualify as making us life-size, so we were concerned.
Simon is also a little vertically challenged, but he assured us that his childhood in Scotland had prepared him for any misadventures, as he had walked to school barefoot in 10 inches of snow and fought off wild scottish lions. This sounded feasible to us (they do say Edinburgh is a completely different place outside of the festival...), so we continued.
We were rewarded with majestic views, which hopefully will appear in this part of the blog at some point - though from previous blogs you will be aware that I have not yet worked out how to position photos and the like... darned new fangled technology!! I'm also rather dependent on Si sending photos as I didn't take any (doh!). (Photo's arrived - thanks Si!)
Having conquered the natural world, we decided to rest up at a little place called the Queen of the Valley - which is an awesome B&B; well worth checking out if you are ever in this part of the world (which we hope you will be). Each room themed on a different part of the world. And a working piano with lots of sheet music in the living room, which we made extensive use of - no doubt scaring many Turkeys, which roam wild in the streets of LaConner (the town to which the Queen belongs).
We were able to do so because we were the only guests at the Queen on our evening - so we sang late into the night. Bearing that in mind I was very glad to receive information the next morning, rather than the night before, that apparently the house is haunted. My girlish disposition would have kept me up all night, but as it was I slept like a baby.
The next day we decided to follow up one visit to a scenic spot with a visit to an even more scenic spot - Deception Pass. Sounds like something out of an NFL playbook (oh, see how I assimilate Ben!) or a Dan Brown 'novel', but is in fact a bridge between the mainland and Whidbey Island (named after that sailor who led an expedition into the channel that his captain decided had been 'deceptive'... ). Hopefully some photos will appear below...
After hiking through some trails around Deception Pass, we went to a small town on Whidbey called Coupeville - which I think is where the film Practical Magic was shot. I'll let Si tell you about that himself.
Then on to home via the Mukilteo ferry. Quite an adventure!
So the next day we settled in for a bit and cooked lots of pumpkiny treats with a pumpkin we had bought back in LaConner - hence my weight gain...
On Thursday, Simon and I decided to walk around Seattle - from Downtown to Ballard (about 7 miles along the shore and across a huge set of locks that Salmon swim up). This turned out to be a bad idea, as the weather was biblical (i.e. we should have built an ark). We were both drenched, so felt justified in eating two lunches, and drinking a platter of beer... how did I gain weight again? And yes, you read right, a platter of beer. They, love their ales in the Northwest, and they are served in a manner akin to fine wine, with regional differences and minutiae of taste explained at various microbreweries.
No political comment in this blog as I am both a) bored by the terrible quality of news in the US and b) shocked at the events in politics in the UK (you seem to have a system much like the US now, where there is a 'real' UK anywhere outside of London... scary...). Just stay safe you guys.
More soon! Much sooner this time I promise!!
DD out
Hurrah for the Dorns. Missing you guys! Ed J
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